Now I turn you again to those portions of God's Word which are the
places of our consideration in this conference. In the letter to the
Hebrews, chapter 3, verse 1: "Wherefore, holy brethren, partakers of
a heavenly calling..." verse 14 "we are become partakers of Christ
if we hold fast the beginning unto the end." We spent quite a lot of
our time this morning with one word, it is that word that is here
translated, "partakers". It is a word that is translated into a
number of words in our languages. Here, and in some other places in
this letter, it is "partakers". In another place in the New Testament it is
"partners", in another place it is "fellows". But we spent our time
in showing that the best translation of the word is "companions". So
we translate: "Wherefore, holy brethren, companions of a heavenly
calling..." we are become companions of Christ and we said that the
New Testament gathers itself around that word. And that word can really be
taken as the key to the whole of this letter to the Hebrews.
Companions of Christ and of a heavenly calling.

Now we are going on from where we left off this morning. I'm very
sorry for all those friends who were not with us because we cannot
tell you all that was said in more than an hour this morning. We are
coming to this letter to the Hebrews and that is its true title. In
the oldest manuscripts it just has this title: to the Hebrews. But
of course it was to Hebrew Christians. Now we want to understand the
setting of this letter before we can understand its message. You
probably know that in New Testament times there was a great conflict between
the Jews and the Christians. A very great battle raged between these
two. The apostle Paul, who himself was a great Hebrew, had a very
large heart for his own people. You remember what he said, if you
look at his letter to the Romans in chapter 9, and verse 3: "I could
wish that I myself were anathema from Christ for my brethren's sake,
my kinsman according to the flesh." He was prepared to let everything
go if only his people would accept the Lord Jesus, so great was his
desire and his hope for them, but he fought a losing battle for
Israel. And if you will look at the last chapter of the Book of the
Acts you will see Paul's surrender of that hope. Acts chapter 28
verse 28: "Be it known therefore unto you, that this salvation of
God is sent unto the Gentiles: they will also hear". So he
says: "Seeing that Israel will not hear, we will give them up. I
give up my great hope for them and I turn to those who will
hear, so we turn to the Gentiles".

And then you come to this "letter to the Hebrews", and at the
end of this letter you have the result of Israel's refusal.
Hebrews chapter 12 at verse 25, the writer makes this appeal to
these Hebrew Christians: "See that ye refuse not him that
speaketh. For if they escaped not, when they refused him that
warned them on earth, how much more shall not we escape, who turn
away from him that warneth from heaven... And this word, Yet once
more, signifieth the removing of those things that are shaken, as
of things that have been made, that those things which are not
shaken may remain. Wherefore, receiving a kingdom that cannot be
shaken..." These words
contain the final judgment upon the Hebrews who rejected Christ.
That "shaking" referred to that destruction which was coming upon
Israel in the year 70 A.D. When that happened, Israel was left
without their country, without a city, without a temple, without a
government. Everything was shaken until it completely fell - the
result of refusing to hear "Him
that speaketh from heaven".

It is in that setting that we have this letter to the
Hebrews. On the one side it is an appeal, a final appeal, to the
Hebrew Christians; an appeal not to go back from Jesus Christ. On
the other side the letter is a great warning as to what will
happen if they do. So you have to put this letter right into that
setting: it is a letter set in a great crisis of spiritual life,
and of course it contains an abiding message for all time.

Let us look for a minute at the three features which made
up that great conflict and which led to that final division.

The first feature was Christ Himself: Christ as the
Messiah, Jesus as the Christ. Of course the Jews believed
in a Christ, for "Christ" is only the Greek word for the Hebrew
"Messiah". And the Hebrews believed in a Messiah, but the trouble
was that they would not have Jesus as the Messiah. And so, as was
prophesied, Jesus became the Stone upon which they fell andwere broken to
pieces. It was a matter of the place that they gave to Jesus. Now
you can see how this letter puts Jesus in such a high place, we
are going to see that again presently. But Jesus as God's anointed
Son, the Christ, was the Rock upon which they were broken. That is
the first great factor in this great conflict and in the ultimate
division.

And we must always remember, dear friends, that the test of
everyone and everything is the place which it gives to Jesus
Christ. If anybody ever comes to you and wants you to accept some
system of teaching, they will have wonderful arguments, they will
use a lot of the Bible, what are you going to do about it? You may
not be able to meet their arguments, and you may not even be able
to answer Scripture for Scripture, but there is one thing that
will always go to the heart of the matter: "What place do you give
to the Lord Jesus? Do you give Him the place of God's eternal
Son?" And everything stands or falls on that. You can try that,
and you will find that most of the false teachers will begin to
wriggle on that: "Oh, we believe in Jesus as a great man, as the
greatest teacher that ever lived and so on, but if you want
us to believe that Jesus is God, we just cannot go that far". It
is the place that is given to the Lord Jesus that is the test of
everyone and everything.

That is the first factor in this great conflict in the
letter to the Hebrews, and you will see why the writer uses the
whole of the first part to magnify the Lord Jesus.

The second feature is what the writer here calls: "the
heavenly calling". And you have got to put all the emphasis upon
that word heavenly. You see, the Hebrews wanted an earthly
calling: and all who are like them, even if they are called
Christians, just want an earthly calling - a Christianity that
belongs to this earth and this world; something down here. Well,
we are going to enlarge upon that later on, but there is a tremendous
significance in this little phrase 'the heavenly calling'. Oh,
that is something very much more difficult, that is far away, that
is up in the clouds; that is not down-to-earth, that is not
practical, this heavenly thing. But everything was in that, and we
shall see that as we go on.

And then there was this third feature: these Hebrews were
prepared to be Christians, but it must be a Christianity after
their own mind; it must be a Christianity that allows all the Old
Testament system to continue. It must allow Moses to continue. It
must allow all the law of Moses to continue. It must allow the
temple to continue. It must allow all the Old Testament priests to
continue. It must allow all the sacrifices to continue, "We are
prepared to be Christians if you will let us bring over our Old
Testament into Christianity. But if you say all that is finished
and a heavenly system has taken its
place, then we cannot have that". A Jewish system brought into
Christianity, that is, a Christianity of ritual and form. Now do
you see the force of this word companions of a
heavenly calling? Companions of Christ? These companions
of Christ are those who are constituted anew on a heavenly and
spiritual basis. They are the ones who are responding to a heavenly calling.

Now we have come to the point of the transition from the
natural and earthly Israel to:

The New Spiritual and Heavenly
Israel.

This transition ought to have been in a Divine sequence,
the one ought to have quietly given way to the other. The old
ought to have made full place for the new. The old Israel ought to
have died, been buried, and raised again in Christ and become the
heavenly Israel - the companions of Jesus Christ - but they
refused to have it like that. And because they refused to have it
like that, they were set aside. God is just moving on with His
purpose concerning His Son, and although many were called, few
were chosen. There were a few of Israel who were chosen as the
companions, while the many who were called, refused. And so they
were set aside, and God moved in this transition toward His new
heavenly Israel.

Note: they positively refused to
move on to heavenly ground. They refused to move on
to the ground of the heavenly Man. Hence, as a result, they went
the way of Adam. Now here is a very interesting and instructive
thing.

Adam was made by God. Adam was chosen by God. Adam was
called by God into relation to His purpose concerning His Son, but
when Adam was made, he was not perfect. He was innocent, but he
was not perfect. You know the difference between being innocent
and being perfect? Well, a little baby child is innocent, but
would you say that it is perfect? No, it is not perfect. It has
got to grow up, and it will only grow up and become perfect as it
goes through all sorts of difficulties and troubles. We call them
"growing pains" and that is the way of becoming perfect from an
innocent child to a full-grown man. Adam was innocent, like a
little child; very beautiful, no sin in him, but he was not
perfect. He had got to come to spiritual perfection. He had still
got to be made like God's Son. That is what he was created for.
Now God put him on test; allowed him to be tested, and, oh, what a
wonderful thing would have happened if Adam had gone through his
testing triumphantly! From the innocence of a little child he
would have become a spiritually full-grown man like the Lord Jesus, and we, the children
of Adam, would have been very different people. But he failed
in his test; he did not go the way that God had called him to go.
What did God do? He put him aside and put a curse on him and said,
"That kind of being can never satisfy Me. He has refused to go the
way of My Son".

That is exactly what happened to Israel after the flesh.
God made Israel, God chose Israel, God called Israel, and all with
His Son in view. And Israel refused, refused to go God's way.
Israel was tested as to Jesus Christ - the four Gospels are just
full of Israel being tested concerning Jesus Christ, and they all
close with Israel saying "No!" to God's way. So God did with
Israel what He did with Adam: He put Israel aside and put a curse
upon Israel and for these many centuries that curse has rested
upon Israel. We will not dwell upon that any longer, it comes out
again and again in our meditations.

Now in this letter, you see you have that possibility
presented. To the Hebrew Christians, God is saying, "Do not refuse
Him that speaketh from heaven". But here is the other side of the
story: Israel positively refused God's heavenly calling. Just at
that point God's eternal
plan is revealed, that is, a heavenly people with a spiritual
nature occupying a place in God's creation. That is what God eternally
intended. He intended that before He called Israel, and He called
Israel to be a people like that - a heavenly people with a
spiritual nature.

I don't know how that breaks upon you as I say that, for me
I see so much, that I despair of ever being able to tell you about
it. I do not know what to say and what not to say; because I've
only got ten days in which to say it. But the point is that just
here, when Israel refuses, God presents His eternal plan; that is, this
heavenly people of a spiritual nature.

Now, the whole of the New Testament is the body of truth
which relates to this eternal will of God. Let's just
look at that very hurriedly. We will take the four gospels (no,
we're not going to study the four gospels; we are just going to
look at them).

If you take up these four gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke and
John, you get some general idea of what they contain, and then you
stand back from that, you are able to see two lines of movement right
through the four gospels; two movements running alongside of each
other. On the one side there is the Jewish idea of the
Messiah, the Jewish Messiah, the Jewish idea of
the kingdom of God, and the whole Jewish system is there,
running along here. Alongside of it, and over against it, there is
something that is different: there is God's idea, and heaven's
idea, of the Messiah. That is very different from the Jewish and
it is always in conflict with the Jewish idea. There is God's
idea, and heaven's idea of the kingdom of God, and it is very
different from the Jewish idea.

There is the Jewish idea of the king - what kind of a king
they want and what kind of a king they are going to have - that is
running along one side through the four Gospels. Alongside of
it and over against it, is God's idea, and heaven's idea, of
a king: "Behold,
thy king cometh unto thee... meek, and riding upon an ass". That
is not the Jewish idea of a king, "How can a meek man riding on an
ass overthrow the mighty Roman Empire? That is not our
idea of a king... and we will
not have this man to reign over us". You see the two lines running
through the four gospels: the Hebrew idea and the heavenly idea.
And that is the very meaning of the four gospels. When you get to
the end of the four gospels, you have a Jewish idea rejected fully
and finally by God and, on the other side, God's idea introduced
and established forever. Two thousand years have proved that! That
one idea of an earthly system is gone; there has been nothing of
it for two thousand years. On the other side there is God's idea
of His kingdom. That was introduced when Israel was rejected, and
God has been going on with that for two thousand years.

We are here tonight because that is true; we have God's
King; we are in God's Kingdom; we are under God's government.
Well, that is what the gospels, the four gospels say to us. Of
course, that is not all, but that is the general conclusion of the
four gospels. Later on again we are going to see the details in
the gospels, or, at least, in one of the gospels, which will shows
how true that was. But these four gospels show the rejection
by God of those who rejected His Son, and on the other side:
God bringing in that which was according to His Son and
establishing it forever so that the very gates of hell have not
been able to prevail against it.

You move from the gospels to the book of the Acts, and in
this book you have two features. First of all, you have the
feature of transition from the old to the new. With God the
transition is complete, but with His people it is made slow
because they are not ready to accept it. The transition was slower
than it ought to have been because James, the head of the church
in Jerusalem, still wanted to have something of old Israel. And
even Peter was very, very reluctant to abandon Israel and go right
out to the Gentiles. And even dear old Barnabas was caught in that
snare. Paul says, with grief in his heart, "Even Barnabas...
even Barnabas". These who were of the old tradition were very slow
to give up their tradition. But you see that God is going on:
"James, Peter, whoever it may be, if you are not coming, on I am
going on, and if you are not going on I shall leave you behind and
find others." And because they were so slow, He brought in Paul -
and Paul got things going! The transition was complete with Paul,
and he was God's instrument of completing the transition. The
letter to the Galatians is the instrument by which that transition
was completed. Judaism received a fatal blow with that letter to
the Galatians - that is, Judaism in the Christian church.

You pass from the book of the Acts and you come into the
letters - what are called the "Epistles" - and what have you here?
Just the full body
of teaching concerning the heavenly and spiritual nature of the
people of God. It is applied to a whole variety of connections.
There is one state of things in Corinth, there's another state of
things in Galatia, another state of things in Ephesus, and so on.
But applied to all these different conditions is this one thing:
it is God's intention to have a heavenly and spiritual people. And
all the letters were applied to different situations with that one
object in view. Every letter in the New Testament has something to
say about this heavenly nature of the people of God.

Now, as I must close in about four minutes, we just arrive
at the letter to the Hebrews, and this letter takes a very, very
important place in this whole question, because this letter to the
Hebrews is a summary of the whole New Testament. The whole meaning
of the New Testament is gathered up in this letter to the Hebrews.
Into this letter there flow many tributaries, making this letter
the meeting place of all the revelation of God concerning His Son,
Jesus Christ.

And so we close where we began. What is God's purpose
concerning His Son? "Wherefore, holy brethren, companions of a heavenly
calling... we are companions of Christ." Who are
the companions of Christ? Those who have fully left the whole
earthly realm of things and are joined to the heavenly Lord; those
who have become God's spiritual Israel; those who have
answered to the heavenly calling. Paul cried, when he was
on trial: "Wherefore, oh king Agrippa, I was
not disobedient to the heavenly vision". And if Paul was a great
companion of Jesus Christ, it was because he had completely
finished with everything but Jesus Christ. He says, "I count all things but
loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord".
He was a man who was wholly on the ground of Jesus Christ, and
wholly on the ground of God's heavenly purpose. These are the
companions of Jesus Christ.

Now, later we shall go further with this and deal with many
of the details which we have only mentioned in general. But I feel
I must say this as I close this evening, there are many young
Christians here and perhaps you don't know your Bible as well as
some older Christians do, and you do not know all the Bible
background of what I have been saying. I hope this will make you
want to know your Bible better! But perhaps there is quite a lot
that I have said that you don't understand. Now this is the one
thing that I do want you to understand - you will come to
understand all the other as you go on, if you hold fast your
beginning firm unto the end. If you really do commit yourself to
the Lord Jesus, you will come to understand, but that is not what
I was going to say. What I was going to say is this: what I want
you to realise is that you have a very much greater Christ than
ever you have imagined. The Christ to whom you have given
yourselves is a very great Christ. The call of the Lord
which you have answered in accepting the Lord Jesus is a much
bigger calling than you have any knowledge of. I just want you to
go away with the impression: "My, I have come into something and
this is big enough to fill my whole life."

So don't worry about what you don't understand, but do
realise how great a Lord is your Lord, and what a great
thing is the heavenly calling.